Avoiding stupid mistakes for new store owners

beverlyhillssupplycompany · Posts: 22

Just thought of making a list of what not to do the get disqulified, because when I started my own store here I almost bought a dummy item from my own shop to test it out. Apparently this would have been a big mistake. I am looking into listing items and just making sure that I don't make any stupid mistakes.. This list can be helpful for new users too.

any other mistakes to avoid?

MaggietheCatsMeows · Posts: 2853

Don't offer payment options other than those supported by eCRATER.

Don't refer people to your personal website for more selection or to check out.

Do read the eCRATER terms and conditions before listing inventory to make sure you are meeting all the terms and conditions they require. If you aren't sure about your situation, ask on the forum.

Do fill in all the about/terms/contact pages as well as some FAQs and your home page welcome message. That gives you an air of respectability.

Do set up shipping for all 50 states.

MoonwishesStore · moderator Posts: 17389

Do make sure you aren't listing any pirated goods.

Do make sure you aren't listing something that isn't allowed--there is a list.

Do read the FAQ thread and spend some time reading other threads here (I'm talking a week or two of as much time as you can give, not a 10 minute skim of the forum and think you know it all) to be sure that this is an appropriate site for you and your merchandise. If it isn't, don't set up here anyways and think you can break the rules as they won't apply to you. They do and you can find yourself suspended WITHOUT WARNING!!!!! if you do go against the rules.

Be able to show that you are allowed to resell certain companies goods and be prepared to show receipts for your purchases of inventory. Especially be careful those of you that are selling high dollar items and software.

This is a great site to sell on, but please be sure that you understand the shipping possibilities, and that you automatically get a AU and a UK store as well as a US one. If you don't want to sell internationally, they will have to be closed by you.

If you need to send a message to the ecrater team, contact them directly, not here on this board as we are all sellers like you. Some of us have more experience and don't mind giving a helping hand but we can't fix things.

Listing here is FREE. There are no Final Value Fees! The only fees you will have to pay is Paypal and Google Wallet fees which are separate from ecrater.

You are allowed up to 10 photos for free. Use them if needed.

You are allowed 100 characters in your titles! Use them. Don't use things like L@@K as that just wastes characters and the search engines don't bother with them.

Describe your items accurately and completely including sizes, color, etc. Pretend you don't have 10 photos showing it off. Don't wax poetic describing your goods in such a way that it is your opinion. Just because you think it is sexy, glamorous, blah, blah, etc. doesn't mean a buyer does. Just the facts will do.

Spell well. Check your grammar. If you got lousy grades in English class, assume you haven't improved and ask a friend that got A's for help.

Set up your listings to look professional, even if you are selling yard sell rejects. Take pride in what you are doing. Take pride in your store. Take pride in ecrater. Each of us helps influence buyers for good or bad so we all need to be the best we can be.

Spend a few minutes daily checking for the latest on the forum.

Check your email, your order page, PayPal and Google Wallet daily to be sure you didn

beverlyhillssupplycompany · Posts: 22

The part that mentions skim through for 10 minutes and think you know it, is usually my method!

tigercreekgifts · Posts: 6293

I definitely agree that you should read up on as much as you can before you list items for sale. When I was new here, I spent several days reading into various topics to make sure I knew how to set up my shop and use the site and you should too.

SUPERPLUSHNSTUFF · Posts: 1542

Make sure you are listing in the proper category.
Do not include terms, shipping info, or other non-descriptive language in your listing. The listing is for the description of the item for sale only.
Listings must be in English.

AudioGasoline · Posts: 1015

Use a real camera to take your photos - phone pictures do not translate well to a computer screen.

When importing items from ebay, edit all of your language for terms like: auction, bids, bidder, winning the item, etc. Pull out any boilerplate, terms of service and HTML. And realize that bulk ebay imports will only bring one photo with each listing; if you have more, you'll need to add them manually.

And PLEASE, if you have questions after all of this, ask them openly on the appropriate forum - asking for help via a PM or ASQ email to another seller is not very fair or polite as a first attempt at fixing something.

cosmicray · Posts: 7286

If you import from eBay, and you don't have bottomless inventory sources, close your eBay store. Trying to sell the same item, of which you only have 1 to sell, is going to get you banned from one site or the other.

thecheapskirt · Posts: 2123

tigercreekgifts · Posts: 6293

cosmicray · Posts: 7286

MoonwishesStore · moderator Posts: 17389

I am so glad I can do my pictures with a scanner! Quick and easy. As to pictures when selling here are some things to do or not do:

Don't lay your stuff on the floor whether clothing, patterns, books, etc. to take their picture--would you want to wear or touch something that has been on laying some one else's floor? You may know you did it on a clean floor but a buyer won't know that.

Don't put more than one item in the photo otherwise a buyer may think they get it all.

Do try to have front and back and side photos and inside photos if necessary.

Keep the background uncluttered. No one wants to see the unmade bed, the old pizza box or the dog/cat. Well maybe they won't mind seeing the dog and cat if they like fur friends, but clean up around the site of your photos and look at them and compare them to catalog pictures you see. Does LLBean show a lot of clutter in the background of their photos? Try to be like the big boys in evaluating whether or not you need to retake some photos.

List items with color or size options separately with their own pictures. If you want to give buyers a choice of one item or two, make two listings with the appropriate photos instead of trying to do one listing. There is no format for a buyer to tell you which number, color or size they want. If you have a quantity of more than one items, they will see that at checkout.

AudioGasoline · Posts: 1015